Surprise on Every Corner
by gwenlianne
Summary: My OC meets the Harry Potter world, Gwen is a Muggle liveing in Canada when she gets her letter from Hogwarts, she gets on the Hogwarts Express and meets some our favourite characters :


It was a normal Saturday morning. Well at least it started out that way. I was reading the cereal box at the kitchen table when my mother brought in the mail and began going through it muttering under her breath when she suddenly stopped and with a look of confusion on her face handed me a letter in a thick manila envelope. I took the letter and inspected it carefully; it had no return address or other information on it, only my name in neat cursive writing written in emerald green ink. I looked at my mother and she nodded, encouraging me to open it. I took the unused butter knife from beside my plate and slid it into the letter opening it. Inside were 2 sheets of paper. One was a letter formally addressed to me, and the other a list of what seemed to be books but they had the strangest namesI had ever seen. I went back to the letter and began to read.

_Dear Ms, Mitchells_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later the 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress._

My eyes widened more and more as I read on through the letter. I looked up at my mom in surprise and handed her the letter. She took it and read it through then promptly put it in the fire place along with the rest of the papers.

"HEY! Those are mine!" I yelled in surprise but before I could continue to speak she said with a sharp voice "Go up to your room right now! I have to speak with your father..." and with that she whisked out of the kitchen heading for my step-fathers study._ I don't know why she keeps referring to him as my father, _I thought with a grumble, _He's not my father and he never will be._ In a worse mood then before I trudged down the stairs to my room and turned on my computer.

The next morning I went down and collected the mail before going into the kitchen and to my surprise there were 2 more letters addressed to me! I went into the kitchen holding my letters and then my mother came in upon seeing the letters, promptly snatched them out of my hands and threw them into the fire. I was about to say something when she held up her hand and said "Don't start with me right now I'm doing this for your own good!" I felt like I was about to explode with how angry I was when something startling happened. The glass in the sliding door behind my mother shattered for no apparent reason. My mother jumped out of the way as the glass skidded across the floor and she looked up at me in surprise.

"Well now I guess I have no choice now." With a sigh she sat down at the table and gestured for me to do the same so I pulled out a chair hesitantly and sat down. My mother heaved a heavy sigh and began telling me about things I'd only heard in fairy tales.

She began with "Well dear I think its time for you to find out about your father. Your real one." I could hardly breathe, my mom NEVER spoke about my father, and she would always change the subject whenever I brought him up.

She ignored the look of shock on my face and continued, "When I was young and foolish I met a young man by the name of ____________ over one summer holiday when I was traveling in England with a few of my girlfriends. We soon became very taken with each other and I thought we were in love. The night I told him I was pregnant, he asked me to marry him, to live in England with him and raise a beautiful family. He painted such a wonderful picture in my mind that I almost said yes, but before I could get the word out he held up a hand and said that before I answered I had to know one thing about him. He said it was something he couldn't control but he had been born... different... then he began to tell me about his school, and his parents... and I thought he was crazy... for he was telling me of magic, not fairy tale pixies and all of that hullabaloo but real honest to goodness magic. I didn't believe him, I thought him mad and began to sob and run away, but he caught up to me and showed me, oh the things he showed me. He pulled out a long thin stick of wood which I knew later to be his wand, and he said one strange word, "Lumos" I believe it was, and the wand tip lighted and bathed us in pure white light. I ran away and vowed never to return. I ran back to the hotel we had been staying in and packed my bags and left the very next day. I came home and never told anyone about what had happened but I had you and I prayed that the magic wouldn't run in your bloods but I fear that he has passed the cursed gene along. I'm so sorry poppet." and with that she finally dissolved into the tears she had been clearly holding back.

Surprised at the sudden outburst of emotion coming from my usually calm and collected mother I put my arms around her and began to actually process what she had just said... _I'm a witch... _ I thought to myself, _I can do magic! I'm going to be going to a school where they will teach me how to use it... GOOD GRAVY IM A WITCH! _

I know I must have looked shell shocked because my mother took one look at my face and said "Honey... if you don't want to go to this school I will not force you but I don't know what will happen if you refuse, they could come and try to take you by force. All I know is that the wizards and witches of the world live in hiding, calling us Muggles and they have their own government with a 'Minister of Magic' and he or she controls the magic population."

With a start I jumped up and said "But mom... I want to go! This is amazing! I've always wondered why I'm so different, why strange things happen around me! This is the answer! If I go to this school... I could be accepted... I wouldn't be a freak anymore!" My heart sung at the thought of not being an outsider, having friends I could tell anything too. I wanted to go to this school, and nothing would stop me.

My mother looked at me with kind, understanding eyes and said "If that's what you want then that's what we shall do, but this school is in England poppet, I think it's a boarding school... If you go then you will be staying there all the normal school year."

Nothing could dampen my mood so I said "Well I will come home on the winter hols, please mum, I think this is what I need to do."

My mom nodded her head in a sad sort of way and said "Okay poppet, if that's what you want."

Just then a large tawny owl landed on the kitchen windowsill, my mother jumped up in fright and began trying (unsuccessfully) to shoo the bird out back out the window, but the bird merely glanced at her then swooped down toward the table where I was sitting and dropped another letter on my plate. I was the same manila envelope with the same emerald green writing. When I looked at my mother she hesitated then gave a firm nod of her head, and I opened it. Once again I read the letter but now it made sense to me as I read it. After I had finished pouring over the book lists I looked up and was surprised to see the owl still waiting on the table. I then remembered I was to reply so I grabbed a piece of loose paper and wrote a quick letter saying I had discussed it with my mother and I would be attending school in the fall then at a loss of what to do I looked at the owl and it looked back at me then held out its right leg where I saw a length of rawhide was tied to its leg. I figured I must be supposed to tie the letter there so I rolled up the paper and secured it to the owl's leg. Not sure what else to do I offered the owl a bit of my toast and it took it gently and ate it, using its sharp beak to peck off bits small enough to eat then once it was finished with a satisfied screech it launched itself out of our kitchen window.

I stared out the window until the large bird had disappeared then looked back at my mom. She was staring at the table where the owl had been but she didn't really seem to be seeing anything, her face blank and unreadable.


End file.
